


All but one

by Cindercat13



Series: All the DNA in the universe minus your own [1]
Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Ben can not turn back to human, F/M, Gen, Kevin and Gwen find out their aliens sooner
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-26
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:28:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 18,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29709552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cindercat13/pseuds/Cindercat13
Summary: It started when an alien device did what it did, it clamped itself on his wrist with secrets that it hid, through rights or lives what will he choose?
Relationships: Kai Green/Ben Tennyson
Series: All the DNA in the universe minus your own [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2183388
Comments: 5
Kudos: 7





	1. Where it all started

A very, very, long time ago. Walking in mammalian skin was a young pre-teen boy by the name of Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, age specifically, 10 earth years old. Sitting in his home worlds way of education, it was often considered a boredom among his age group but something they just had to do as they were forced to by their planets laws. To starve off the boredom the young child folded a paper air plane out of the spare he had on his desk, and once it was done he gently threw it through the air as it hit his teachers head in the back, making them turn around to see what had happened. Benjamin quickly turned back to his book, making the illusion that it wasn’t him.  
  
The young boy was on the last stretch of his schools education period for the year, as after the bell on the wall sounded it was the signal for the youth to know schooling was out for the year.  
Benjamin looked to the clock on the wall, it signalling the time before the bell actually went. “Come on, come on…” Benjamin muttered as he watched the hands tick by. His teacher then stood up getting the classes attention, “and I just want to remind you all that I will be teaching summer school this year and it’s not too late to sign up.” Benjamin scoffed at the thought, he and a lot more didn’t enjoy school when it was in session normally, what made anyone think they would come back when they have a long duration break. “Yeah right…” Benjamin said under his breath.  
  
After another minuet, the bell suddenly blared and the young boys and girls were quick to jump out of their seats and leave the building, Benjamin exclaiming loudly, “yes! Outt’a here!” before following suit of the other children. As they all left their teacher still spoke to them as they walked, “everyone have a great vacation, and I hope to see you all again in the fall.” They said before they spotted our young boy. “Benjamin.” They said then holding up the paper plane that he threw before, “can I have a word with you before you go?” Benjamin said nothing as he grumpily walked back to receive his scolding.  
  
After that was over, on his way out of the building he saw something that he didn’t like, his school’s two resident bullies. And what made it worse was they were over another kid roughing him for his money, Benjamin was a little cross and decided to step in, I mean what did they expect him to hand over? At best his spare change if it was already the end of the day. “Leave him alone,” the brave youth said. The two looked behind themselves and saw the little kid, “get lost shrimp.” One said. “I said back off,” Benjamin repeated his warning. “Oh, looks like we got ourselves a hero,” the second taunted, “‘suppose we don’t want to back off.” They said surrounding Benjamin. “What are you going to do about it Tennyson?” the first one mocked. Benjamin didn’t want to fight, he knew it would be two on one, but he hoped that maybe this kid they were picking on before was smart enough to see their opening and run. Benjamin let out a battle cry and charged at the school jerks.  
  
A few minutes later, Benjamin and the kid he was trying to help earlier were hanging on a tree branch by their underwear. “Thanks a lot.” The kid said obviously not sounding happy. Benjamin didn’t know if he honestly had the right to complain, he was the one who just got beaten up and had what little of his money left stolen, when the other kid had plenty of opportunities to run while the both of them were hanging up but their undergarments now. “You know you could have ran while I had them distracted right?” Benjamin retorted. The two sat in silence until Benjamin heard a familiar engine coming up the road in front of them, “come on Ben let’s go we’re burning day light, I want to make it to the camp site by night fall.” An elderly looking man in an RV called out from the driver’s seat. This man was Maxwell Tennyson, Benjamin’s grandfather. Or as most people called the young boy, Ben, for a nick name.  
Ben looked at his grandfather from where he was, and in an obvious tone he said, “ah, grandpa, a little help here.” Max realized that the two kids weren’t playing, and came to help them both down. Ben waved a silent goodbye and the other kid began his way home, Ben then stepping into his grandpa’s RV with a huge smile on his face. “I have so been looking forward to this,” he said then looking to his right and spotting something that made his head do a double take. “What are you doing here, what is she doing here?!” Ben asked pointing at a young red head girl his age who he knew very well, this being Gwendolyn Tennyson, or Gwen for short, his cousin. “Take it easy dweeb this wasn’t my idea, somebody convinced my mum that going camping for the summer would be a good experience for me.” Gwen said glancing over at her grandfather. “Grandpa please, tell me you didn’t.” Ben said looking to Max. The man turned around from heading to the driver’s seat, “I thought it would be fun if your cousin came along with us this summer, is that a problem?” the two ten year old’s looked at each other and said nothing as they didn’t want to upset their grandpa.  
  
Once Ben was sat down across the table from his cousin they were off on the road to the campsite that Max mentioned. Ben was still annoyed though at the thought that his cousin was joining them, “I can’t believe this, I wait all school year for this trip and now the queen of cooties is along for the ride.” He said looking at Gwen from across the table, but the ginger head had some thoughts of her own. “Hey! I had my own vacation already planned out to you know,” she said then holding up a timetable she had made, “each activity is colour coded so I never did the same thing two days in a row. Now I’m stuck with my geek-a-zoid cousin going camping for three months.” Ben didn’t take kindly to that so he managed out a not-so-subtle, “geek.” Which Gwen responded with, “jerk.” Max sighed from the driver’s seat, “something tells me this is going to be a long summer.” He said as they drove under a bridge.  
  
  
After a few hours of driving the trio finally arrived at their destination of the camping grounds where it was already sun down and they had a table set up with Max bringing out what was apparently their dinner as he hollered, “chow time!” as he placed a bowl on the wood that had Ben and Gwen shivering at the sight.  
“Okay, I give up. What is that?” Ben asked looking very perturbed, “marinated meal worms, hard to find them fresh in the state. You know their considered a delicacy in some countries.” “And totally gross in others,” Gwen said as she watched a worm get out of the bowl and squirm away. “If these don’t sound good I’ve got some smoked sheep’s tongue in the fridge,” Max said. Ben groaned, “couldn’t we just have a burger or something?” Ben asked, the idea making both him and Gwen smile. “Nonsense, this summer is going to be an adventure for your tastebuds, I’ll grab the tongue.” Max said turning around and heading back inside. Ben leaned over to Gwen to whisper in her ear, “okay, I’ve got a half-eaten bag of chips and a candy bar in my backpack, what do you got?” “some rice cakes and heart candy.” Gwen responded. “think we can make them last the whole summer?” Ben asked in an almost wishful thinking tone. Both of them slumped, they were not going to enjoy this.  
  
After the disaster they miraculously managed to avoid, the two ten year old’s were minding themselves with the tech they brought with them. Ben on a game system and Gwen on her computer when Max came out holding a bag or marshmallows, “who wants to roast marshmallows?” he asked but Ben and Gwen had their eyes glued to their devices. “Okay… how about we tell scary stories?” Max asked trying again. “Scarier than having to spend the summer with your freak of a cousin,” Ben said looking over his shoulder at Gwen’s back. “I’d like to grandpa but I’m busy doing a web search on cures for extreme doofus-ness, nothing yet Ben but let’s not give up hope.” Gwen said turning around and facing Ben. “Aw come on you two, we’re all in this together you can mope around like this all summer or we can have some fun, what do ya say?” Max asked, “I vote for moping.” Gwen said. “I’m going to go take a walk, smell ya around Gwen.” Ben said placing his system on the ground and picking a direction to walk into the woods.  
  
Ben left his thoughts to himself, he was so excited to spend time with his grandpa and him alone, now he had to be dragged through the mud by having his cousin come. He needed a break after this year, that’s why he was so looking forward to this, he had been having his butt handed to him on a silver platter. The universe was just handing him one disaster after the other, he was wondering when it was going to end or at least give him a big fat break. As he walked with his head hung low, he heard a rumble in the sky, looking up he awed, “woah, a shooting star,” Ben said when the star suddenly changed directions and was now rocketing towards him. Ben had time to gasp then scream while he ran, the meteor landing maybe a few meters away from him, sending him flying forward. When the dust settled, in front of Ben was a crater with some smoke still moving up into the sky, the preteen slowly got up and looked in, “looks like a satellite or something.” He remarked, when the corner of the crater he was standing on gave way and made him fall in the hole. Ben screamed by the sudden drop, but it did get him closer to the supposed satellite which made it open up revealing a sort of watch like device, all be it a bulky one. “A watch? What’s a watch doing in outer space?” Ben asked as if the thing could answer him.  
  
Deciding that if it was a watch, he wanted to see how it felt, so he reached out his left hand and was about to touch it when the device jumped up by itself and wrapped around his wrist. Ben screamed and desperately tried to shake the tech off, “get off of me! Get off! Get off!” Ben screamed then climbing out of the crater and running straight back the way he came. “Grandpa!” the ten year old screamed.  
  
At the camp, Max looked out into the direction Ben had gone. “Ben’s been gone awhile, well I suppose he can’t get into too much trouble out here.” He remarked. “Unless he wound up bear food.” Gwen said. Max turned around and raised an eye brow at the young girl, “hey I can dream can’t I?” she asked.  
  
Back with Ben, the young boy was trying to use a stick to get the watch off, it seemingly been glued to his skin. When the stick broke Ben threw it hard and far out of frustration, then slumping to his knees while looking at the device, it definitely wasn’t a watch anymore, watches tell time, this thing just stuck itself to his arm. Ben then tried to fiddle with its dial, twisting his finger along the rim and then the face popped up making a beeping noise. The hour glass on it then moved into a diamond, and what was in the centre of it was an odd looking humanoid silhouette. Without much else to do and basically out of options, Ben gently pushed the face back down and when it clicked into place he felt an overwhelming dread that lasted for a second, but it felt like it reached over the entire universe.  
  
Red rocks started to come out of the tech, and quickly spread up his arm and up his face to his eyes, his whole skin becoming covered in rocks as anything under started to melt away into magma and lava, his hair combusted into flames and his clothes burnt off in a swift flow of flames, he could feel a sudden flush of a heatwave before it was then gone as quickly as it came. The ten year old had jumped up out of surprise, and when he looked at his hands he could see a sort of inner plasma body, covered by dark red rocks. His feet had a slight oval-like shape with only two toes and one back toe. While Ben slowly looked himself over, he could feel the panic rising as his body began to shake, before he let out a long scream. “AAHHHHHHHHHH! I’m on fire! I’m on fire! AHH!” Ben screamed in a voice that he certainly knew was not his own as he ran around a bit, adding to the panic even more as he tried to see if he could put himself out.  
But when the preteen stopped and gave himself a closer concentration, he could feel that he wasn’t in any pain, he was just scared, but that fear quickly turned into realization. “Hey I’m on fire, and, I’m okay. Check it out, I’m totally hot,” Ben said to himself and laughed at his own pun when he spotted a tree behind him. “Oh yeah,” Ben said getting an idea pop into his head and a rush of adrenalin spread to his hands. “Uh-huh…” he said lifting up a hand and pointing at the tree, “here it goes,” when a fire ball shooted out of his finger and blasted a hole in the trunk, “that’s what I’m talking about,” Ben said looking at the small flame on his finger tip, after a few seconds it disappeared and Ben tried to amp it up. He clapped his hands together and when he slowly pulled them apart a fire ball started to charge in his palms, when it was a decent size he wound it back like throwing a dodge ball and launched it through several other trees before he realized they caught fire.  
  
“Wait, stop!” Ben said as if trying to will the fire to halt but it appeared controlling fire outside of the stuff he’s already shot was out of his control, literally, as a massive forest fire started to brew. He ran over to some of the smaller flames and tried to stop them out, but only succeeded in making a fire in the same shape of his new foot. “Oh man, I’m going to get so busted for this.” Ben said continuing to try and put the fires out.  
  
Back at the camp sight, Gwen was walking back out from the RV while Max was sitting by the campfire when the ginger headed girl noticed the black smoke against the setting red and purple sky. “What’s that?” she asked getting her grandpa’s attention. “Looks like the start of a forest fire, we better let the ranger station know, probably some darn fool camper out there, messing with something he shouldn’t.” It then dawned on them that Ben was still out there, and who knew if he was maybe in the middle of that fire. “Ben.” The two looked at each other and Max opened a bag he brought that had two fire extinguishers, “better take this.” He said handing one to Gwen as they started running the way Ben had gone.  
  
Speaking of the fire-y ten year old, he was still trying to put out fires to the best of his abilities but it seemed the only thing he was doing was making it worse as he was made of fire and rock himself. “This would be so cool if it weren’t so not cool…” Ben said then going back to stomping on the fires.  
As he got back to his feeble attempts at putting out the fire, unbeknownst to him, Gwen was actually not too far from him and coming his way. As she ran into the inferno that was this forest, she used the fire extinguisher on some of the fires that were in her way when she came up to what looked like a bit of a wall of fire, when she aimed the foam at it though, oddly enough, it screamed like someone just got doused in cold water.  
  
Ben turned around to see what had just pored scolding hot water on him, as he stood, his new height saw him looking down at none other than his cousin who looked back up at him with a blank expression before screaming. Ben tried to be the calm one in this situation because it was bad enough that a forest fire was around them, “I know I look weird, but there’s no reason to be afraid-” Ben was sharply cut off when he received the end of a fire extinguisher to the head, sending him tumbling back a bit. He didn’t expect that strength coming from his now very small cousin, and to add insult to injury, she sprayed him again with foam, sending another splash of pain over him again and a bit of it even getting in his mouth making him cough it up. When he turned to look at her he was now a little cross as the fire on his head reignited, he was now at eye level with her as he was sitting on one knee in a crouched position and Gwen pointing the canister at him. “I don’t know what you are, but you’ll stay down there if you know what’s good for you.” The normal ten year old out of the two threatened.  
  
Ben though, wasn’t having any of it. He looked down to her shoes, and while her guard was down he started a small fire on her laces that got her distracted enough for him to stand up, and have a bit of a laugh. After Gwen put the fire on her foot out she raised the extinguisher over her head ready to swing again, “I warned you.” She said. “Don’t even think about it freak,” Ben said ready to grab the red can if he had to.  
Gwen then had a look of realization cross her face as she lowered the canister, that tone of voice, it was exactly how Ben would tease her. It was a long shot, but she decided to ask anyway, “Ben, it that you? What happened?” she asked. And thankfully, he responded. “Well, when I was walking this meteorite fell from the sky almost smudged me, except it wasn’t a meteor or a satellite but this cool watch thing that jumped up onto my wrist and when I tried to get if off I was suddenly on fire only it didn’t hurt and then I accidentally started this mega forest fire.” Gwen looked about as lost as you could get with an explanation like that, but she didn’t need to respond, as Max came running from behind her, “Gwen are you alri- what in blazes?!” he exclaimed.  
  
“Hey grandpa, guess who,” Gwen said looking up at Ben. “It’s me grandpa,” Ben said waving. “Ben? What happened to you?” Max asked a gasped, “well, when I was walking this meteor-” “Um, excuse me, major forest fire burning out of control, remember?” Gwen asked cutting Ben off. The two boys looked around remembered back to the situation at hand, they could talk about this later. “What do we do?” Ben asked, not sure if he could be much help in this situation other than not being able to be burnt, Max had a plan though. “Back fire, start a new fire and let it burn into the old one, they’ll snuff each other out, think you can do it Ben?” Max asked, “shooting flames I can definitely do.” Ben said smiling then running into the fire while Gwen and Max ran back to camp.  
When Ben appeared at the other end of the fire he made a massive flame thrower that blazed into the other trees, when that was done all he had to do was let mother nature do the work. Satisfied with his job well done he ran back the way he came to the camp sight, and making sure he didn’t leave anymore flames behind. When he arrived at the RV he saw Gwen and Max waiting for him, he walked over with a thumb up in the air telling them that it was done, now was just the detailed explanation of what happened to him.  
  
  
After setting up a fire and sitting down for a bit, Ben was finally at the end of his side of the story. “And you say that this watch just jumped up and clamped onto your wrist?” Max asked and while he was, Gwen threw Ben a marshmallow which he caught but immediately cooked on touch before tossing it in his mouth, “hey this time it wasn’t my fault, I swear,” Ben said while sitting away from them on a rock so he wouldn’t set anything else on fire by accident. “I believe you Ben,” his grandpa said honestly. “Think he’s going to be a monster forever?” Gwen asked, but the answer the ten year old’s got was not one they were expecting, “he’s not a monster, he’s an alien.” Max said so matter of fact-ly that the two kids looked at him in surprise, “well I mean, well look at him, what else could he be?” Max asked, explaining his reasoning a little further. “I don’t wanna be fire guy forever, how am I supposed to play sumo slammers if every time I melt the controller or game itself before I even get started?” Ben said looking down at his magma hands with a sad expression, “don’t worry Ben, we’ll figure this thing out.” Max said, but it didn’t do much to ease his grandson’s sorrow, “hmm…” Ben hushed out as a sad moan while he slumped down looking at the ground.  
  
Max then stood up and grabbed a flash light as it was getting dark out now. “I’ll go check out that crash site, you guys stay here until I get back.” He said walking off to the area Ben said he found the watch. The kids didn’t have much of a choice, Ben would just cause another fire and if people saw him it would be a bad thing and Gwen was the one to normally follow rules anyway so she wasn’t going anywhere. As the two watched him walk off, Gwen looked back to Ben who still had his head hung low, even Gwen could tell when not to push it so she pulled out another marshmallow, “want another?” she asked. Ben looked up and held out an open palm, “two please.” He said and Gwen did just that as she handed him two into his hand and he popped them both into his mouth. “Sooo…” she tried to start a conversation while putting a marshmallow on a stick, “how does it feel? You know, being like this?” she asked. “It freaked me out at first, but the best way I can describe it is if you’re getting a good stretch.” Ben said then looking down to the watch’s face that was on his chest. “What do you think would happen if I touched it again?” Ben asked as he tried poking it. “I don’t know, but if it did this to you the first time then I wouldn’t” “no duh you wouldn’t.” Ben said then running his fingers across the rim like what he did last time and a hologram projected from it, scaring both him and Gwen, what was there was a green silhouette of the guy he was now.  
  
“I think I figured it out! Okay, now to just find a shape that looks like me.” Ben said turning the dial clockwise and the silhouette’s changed. The next one was something that was on all fours and looked to have no eyes, next was a massive muscular one with four arms that seemed to catch Ben’s attention, the next was the exact opposite to the one they just saw as it looked tiny compared to the other ones and sort of frog like, next looked like a dinosaur that appeared in that Jurassic park movie but it had balls on its feet, next looked the most human out of the ones so far but its arms were very elongated its fingers almost touching the ground, the next was very prism looking and to be made out of rock with spikes coming out of its back, the next looked like a horrid sight to see as it reminded Ben and Gwen of those freaky angler fish so Ben quickly switched to the next, speaking of didn’t look to pretty itself as it reminded the ten year old’s of a bug, the next reminded them of the cartoon depiction of a ghost so they moved on, except there wasn’t another one to move on to, as it returned back to the one Ben was already.  
The boy began to panic as he started to cycle through them again to see if there would be a difference if he turned it the other way, but it was the exact same just in reverse, there wasn’t one that looked close enough to human or even to himself. Ben felt like he was about to cry as he truly didn’t know if he would ever get back to normal or not, he was now really regretting not running straight back to Grandpa Max in the first place.  
  
Gwen saw this as small leaks of lava started to spill over his eye sockets, she then came up with an idea to maybe at least distract Ben for a bit by maybe transforming into something less hazardous. The rock one did catch her attention, “maybe try turning into one less hazardous for the time being, the one that looked like it was made out of rock couldn’t hurt right?” she asked. Ben looked to her then back to the holograms, “the one with four arms caught my eye, I’ll see about the rock guy next because he did look rather sharp, I don’t want you getting a serious cut while we’re in the middle of nowhere.” Ben said then turning the dial to the giant four limed guy, he then gently pushed the face and in a quick flash of green light what was sitting there in front of Gwen was a humanoid alien that looked approximately twelve feet tall, had well-developed muscles, two pairs of four-fingered arms, and red skin. A black stripe went from his chin to his lower lip, and he had four eyes: a main pair, and a smaller pair below them, each being orange. And unlike the last guy, this one wore clothes, a white T-shirt with a black line going down it, black pants, and fingerless gloves. The watches face now being on his upper left shoulder.  
  
Ben stood up to his full new height and he could already feel how much this one packed a punch, how tight his skin felt across his muscles, he silently wondered to himself that if this was what it felt like to be strong. “Okay, I didn’t expect this guy to be this tall,” Ben said looking himself down and also glancing at Gwen to see just how much taller he had gotten compared to her. “At least you won’t be setting anything on fire, and it sounds like you swallowed broken glass.” Gwen said smiling up at him and laughing the last part which the other ten year old returned with a smirk and his hands on his hips, “how would you know what someone sounds like after they’ve swallowed glass? It that how you lost your glasses?” Ben mocked.  
Gwen didn’t even get a chance to retort when the two of them heard an odd charging noise, like a camera getting ready to take a picture. They looked around franticly and Ben even made sure it wasn’t the watch when he spotted a red flying disc in the air that looked like a robot, and it was pointing some sort of weapon right at them. When it fired, Ben jumped into a roll and grabbed Gwen, protecting her with his body. She shrieked a bit out of shock when Ben came at her but she soon found out why when she saw the robot, apparently that thing had shot a lazer at them and Ben just saved her from becoming a dead man. Gwen shrieked again, clinging close to Ben as she did not want to be let go and Ben wasted no time in legging it into the forest with her in his bottom pair of arms, hopeful that he could lose the thing.  
  
Ben sprinted through the trees and took some glances back to see if that thing was still following them which it certainly was. He made sharp turns and leaps to avoid the robots laser’s all the while having Gwen cling onto him by the shirt, but he knew he couldn’t fight that thing with her in his arms. He made another sharp turn this time to behind a rock as he maneuvered around it to make the robot think it lost him, once it had circled the rock a few times it seemed Ben’s plan had worked as was in the air and gone soon after. Ben peaked out from behind the rock and quietly sighed in relief when he believed it was gone, he looked down at Gwen who he still had in his lower pair of arms and gently set her down, when she got to her feet she was shaking like a leaf and collapsed to the ground with Ben following after her as he slided down the rock to sit. “That was way to close,” Ben said. “Whatever tipped you off Sherlock?” Gwen asked sarcastically but even Ben wasn’t in the mood to bite back to that. He stood back up and looked around one last time before he told Gwen his plan, “okay, that thing could still be flying around and if it finds other people who knows what could happen, I want you to stay here and keep cover while I go and fight it.” Gwen of course didn’t like that, “what?! And leave me here all alone?” she yelled. “Well you could start to head back to the RV then and close the door, I can’t fight that thing with you in my arms.” Ben said kneeling down to her level. Gwen absolutely hated this but she had to admit Ben had a point, she swallowed her fear and began to stand up and run back to the RV. Ben nodded in a silent thanks and ran after the bot.  
  
When he heard the thing buzzing in the air he followed it to where it was just dodging the trees probably trying to find him again, he shouted after the thing and got its attention back. “Hey scrap heap! Remember me?” he shouted and the bot immediately turned around, its sights set on the watches face plate that was on Ben’s shoulder. The multi limbed ten year old had to make this quick or else he might be in trouble, he ran at some of the taller trees and jumped up them to leap even further and land on top of the bot, but unfortunately, he was too big to land on top of it, so what ended up happening was that his feet slipped out from under him, and he flipped the robot upside down and was now hanging onto it while it flew around madly at top speed. Ben realized the mistake he might have just made so he tried to steer it by leaning side to side, only for things quickly became worse when a sharp hill face was coming up close and fast. It was too big to go around, and he couldn’t make that sharp a turn, so the best thing he could do was let himself crash.  
He was rammed face first into the rock and while it made the robot explode, ending it, on the way down, Ben cut his leg on an open rock and it made for a painful landing when he plummeted onto solid earth. Ben looked around from his crash landing site, being slammed into a hill face and now dropped onto the ground was not the most fun experience, he looked behind himself to find that the robot was at least destroyed, he breathed a sigh of relief and when he tried to stand up he shrieked a bit at the pain that was suddenly shot through his leg. He looked down to see that his leg was bleeding a dark red and it looked like a lot, that would mean a very long cut or maybe whatever this alien had for arteries. Ben had to land back on the ground again but only got to sitting on his knees when he heard another sound above him that was apparently another robot exactly like the one he just destroyed, Ben looked up to be greeted with the barrel of a lazer, he closed his eyes shut and waited for the hot fire of death to brand him when instead of the lazer fire he heard earlier, it was a solid clang of metal on metal. When he looked up he saw Gwen with a shovel beating the nuts and bolts off of the bots head, “back off sparky! No flying tree trimmer is going to hurt my cousin!” she yelled giving it a few more solid hits. “I never thought I’d say this, but am I glad to see you.” Ben said smiling at her. “You can thank me later, let’s go, grandpa’s back and waiting in the RV.” “Give me a second I injured my leg with that last one.” Ben said standing up and beginning to limp as they made their way back to the RV.  
  
When they got back, Max got straight to patching Ben’s leg up. Thankfully, it was just a really long cut and nothing serious, he wouldn’t even need stitches. Ben sat against the RV just under the window to the kitchen table, which was where Gwen was sitting, looking out and watching their grandpa patch Ben up. “I’m still really sorry about this grandpa,” Ben said wincing a bit as Max wrapped the bandage around his leg. “And I’m still not upset with you about this Ben, you did the right thing in just running for the time being and coming up with a plan.” Max said clipping the bandage together, “and I see you worked out the watch.” “Yep! But there’s the bad news, there’s ten aliens on this thing, including the one I am now, but none of them are human. I still don’t know how to turn back.” Ben said hushly. “Isn’t this what you always wanted though? To never go back to school? To help people? To maybe even become famous?” Gwen asked with a cocky brow raised and a smirk on her face. “Yeah, as a normal person. Who knows how my mum and dad will react, can I even go home like this?” Ben asked legitimately. Max hissed through his teeth, he knew he was forgetting something. “I’ll handle that for you Ben, but for now, with a device as powerful as that on you, my best guess is that we better help you learn, and fast.” Ben smiled at that idea when they heard a voice come over one of Max’s police radios, “mayday! Mayday! Somebody help us! We’re under attack by some sort of, I know you’re not gonna believe me, but, robot!”  
  
Ben was quick to try and stand but he was ushered by Max, “Ben, I don’t think you should face this, if your still hurt-” “I don’t plan on using this guy. I just hope the injuries don’t transfer over.” Ben said then turning the dial of the watch that was still on his shoulder, the same sort of projection as before came out despite its angle but Ben continued to scrolled anyway to the one that Gwen and him were talking about before, the sharp looking one. Ben smacked the watch and in another quick flash of green light what stood there was a crystalline-based life form, made of a turquoise diamond-like material, he sported four crystal shards on his back and a sharp head also looking rather muscular and mature. This guy also wore clothes, specifically a uniform that was black on the right half and white on the left with a black patch on the left shoulder where the watches face was.  
“So what can this guy do?” Gwen asked as she hopped out of the RV. Ben’s deep voice in this form was what met to their ears, “I don’t know, but I bet it’s going to be cool.” He said clenching and unclenching his fist, then directing his attention to his leg but it felt fine, he still had to be cautious though just in case if he was jumping the gun. “I feel good for now, let’s go and scrap that bot,” he said looking to his present family who smiled at him confidently.  
  
When they got there, most of what they could see was smoke, but not even the fires could hide the height of the massive robot trashing the place. “Looks like papa robot this time. I’ll get gear heads attention, you guys get the campers to safety.” Ben said then watching them run off. Ben focused his sights on the bot and jogged in, he knew he had to get its attention so he didn’t care how long or how cheesy this sounded, “leave them alone, you want somebody to pick on? Try me.” Well it definitely seemed to work, work a little too well, as Ben was blasted into an RV by a lazer then blasted again not long after he landed. At least his leg was holding up. But after being blasted while he was crashed into a RV, he had a lot of the debris fall on him, which he swiftly cut with his arm formed into a curved blade. Ben looked at the appendage now makeshift weapon and smiled at it when he managed to form spikes on it, “cool.” He remarked.  
When the robot came up to him, he was forced to take a more combatable approach. He pulled himself free from the rest of the RV, and ran up to the bot taking a swing with his bladed arm, which the tin can quickly jumped into the air to dodge then came slamming back down landing on top of Ben. As the crystalline ten year old was pinned, he tried to wiggle himself free but found himself frozen to the spot, “ah-oh, I think I’m in trouble,” Ben remarked when he noticed the robot turn its head specifically at the watch that was on his shoulder, it then hits him, this thing and the other ones from before were looking for the watch, he thought he saw the smaller one look at the watch for a second before Gwen smashed it. Well he couldn’t exactly ponder on it as the robot got off him, only then to pick him up and throw him into a car. The boy shook it off easily and jumped back out again to then be dodging lasers, when one of them he ducked from hit a tree behind him he saw it begin to teer off and it would be falling directly onto his cousin.  
The hero wasted no time in sprinting in front of Gwen and forming his back the same way he did his arm, when the tree fell it was split in two by Ben as his back turned into a one stop axe. “So, we even?” he asked referring to the time she saved him from a near point blank kill. “Even.” She said with a smile then it contorting into panic as she saw the robot come up behind Ben, who was to slow to save himself from being grabbed again, “ah-oh.” Ben said before he was lifted into the air and grabbed by the left arm, the robot hoping to tear it off. Ben was quicker though, as he formed his arm into a bouquet of spikes destroying its hand before being promptly blasted with a laser from its other hand that he was still in. He was sent flying again like a cheap piece of jewellery, this time being sent into a building that looked to be the information centre. “Ben!” the ten year old could hear his grandpa yell, but he was swift into getting back up again and this time forming both arms into blades and charging once again. The robot aimed another laser but Ben didn’t want to be sent flying again, at this rate he would be destroying the park himself. He lifted his arms to a block but oddly enough when the laser hit, it bounced off him like a ray of light, reflecting it off him and sending it to different places nearly hitting the crowd. That distracted Ben for the right amount of time for him to be sent back, but not flung. He looked at his bladed arm and saw it reflect the light of the fires when he then got an idea, but it required him getting hit.  
  
He got back up again and stood in front of the bot, taunting it. “Come on! Put one in here,” he yelled pointing to where he believed his heart should be. He heard his grandfather yell again but he was to focused to listen. When the robot fired again Ben caught it in his open palms, holding it before getting a grip and aiming it back. “What comes around, goes around,” Ben quipped aiming the laser back at the bot, “let’s see how you like it you techno freak!” he yelled destroying the bot and watching it fall over. Done and in a heap of scrap.  
“All right!” Gwen and Max cheered, “way to go Be- I mean uh, diamond-headed guy!” Max shouted saving himself at the last moment. Ben caught that little slip up though, and more importantly to him, he heard the correction. ‘Diamond-headed guy’, it made this start to hit a little harder for him. Ben suddenly lost his excitement in one movement, he looked to his present family and then back the way they came. He did a two fingered salute at them including the crowd for appearances sake before running off without another word.  
  
  
Later, when they all met back at the RV, Max and Gwen found Ben sitting at the picnic table waiting for them, when he saw them coming up he stood back up and met them half way, “how did the two of you do with the bystanders? Anyone need an ambulance?” he asked once he was in front of them. “We got out of there before they could talk to us if that’s what you’re wondering,” Gwen said. “And thanks to you nobody needed a hospital.” Max said. Ben smiled at them with a mix of relief when he felt an odd laxing but tightening of his jaw as he opened wide, apparently this alien could yawn. “Well it looks like all of us have had long day, I say we hit the hay and pack up tomorrow to head out on the road.” Max said getting the two kids exited.  
  
When they got inside the RV, Ben was faced with a little dilemma of how he was going to sleep. The fire guy would burn the place, and the red one with the four arms would be too big, which for the sake of familiarity left Ben with the one he was in now which was too big for his normal bunk. “Umm, grandpa, do you think I could set up the futon?” He asked waiting to see if it was okay. Max realized the situation and brushed it off with a smile, “sure sport, go right ahead.” That was all Ben needed as he set the folded futon couch out that was next to his and Gwen’s bunks. “Are you seriously too big for your bunk?” Gwen asked as she had already gotten changed into her pyjamas and was setting herself up for bed. “Yep, unless I want to stick these spikes through the wall.” Ben said pointing a thumb to the spikes on his back before he carefully laid down on the futon stomach first and got comfortable. Max turned off the lights and watched as the two ten year old’s shuffled for a bit more before stopping and falling into a hushed sleep, their shallow breathes filling the RV and the quiet jingle of Ben’s chest rising and falling. Max walked up to Ben and laid out a blanket for him covering his legs as it would rip if he placed it on the boy’s back. He had a lot of explaining to do over the next few days to Ben parents, and he knew they weren’t going to be happy.  
  
  
The next morning Ben woke up with a stir, he felt oddly stiff and opened his eyes to see a crystalized hand coming out from under his pillow. He got up with a jump and looked around expecting to see Gwen pulling a prank on him when he realized the position he was in, last night was all real… and he still hadn’t turned back to normal. Ben let out a loud sigh and fell back down on his side to the futon, he was so not ready to get up. He then heard some rustling coming from outside, he sat up again to find that the RV door was open and he could see grandpa Max packing up. Not wanting to leave the old man to do it all by himself he got up properly and picked up one of the bags that looked rather heavy, “so, where do you want this?” Ben asked making his grandpa turn around, he seemingly to get a little bit of a fright. Once Max realized it was just Ben he let out a chuckle, “heh, just in the trunk Ben, and try to Tetris it.” He said watching his grandson smile then walk around to the back.  
  
Ben opened the RV’s trunk and carefully placed the bag he had snugly in the corner, followed up by another bag next to it that his grandpa placed. “At least let me get the heavier ones.” Ben said walking back to the front door. “As much as my pride wants to deny it, I’ll let you get those.” Max said walking back with the crystalline alien. As the two went on to grabbing more bags Max realized that Gwen wasn’t up, normally if Ben got up first he would scare Gwen awake but the girl was nowhere to be seen. “Ben, where is your cousin?” Max asked. “Still asleep why?” that made Max pause for a second, “don’t you normally wake her up?” he asked raising a brow. “Since, _this_ , has happened… I haven’t been feeling that up to it…” Ben said gesturing to himself in a sad tone. That made Max’s heart tighten, it looked like this was starting to sink in for Ben sooner than he though, that then gave him an idea that he was planning to do later anyway. “Say, I was planning on talking to your parents about this later, but I’d figure you’d want to be there for it. So how about after Gwen wakes up we give them a video call?” Max asked.  
  
Ben felt his chest tighten as his heart felt like it skipped a beat, he was not prepared for that. He looked at his grandpa then the ground as he suddenly felt very meek, he did want to talk to his parents but he didn’t know how to go about it. He hugged his arms and looked back up to his grandpa, “I do want to see them, but… I don’t know how they’ll see me. I’m scared of what they’ll say or do.” Ben admitted. Max could see it written on Ben’s face that he was nervous, but he knew his son and daughter in law would love Ben no matter what, they would just be shocked for a while that’s all. “They will always still love you Ben, they may just be a little shocked the first time.” Max said comforting his grandson by placing a hand on his forearm and giving a kind smile. Ben looked at his grandpa from the gesture, it didn’t feel as nice as it being his own skin, but it was the thought that counted. Ben gently hugged his grandpa back and smiled, he was at least glad that him and Gwen were supporting him.  
  
Once they had finished packing, Gwen woke up a bit later, and before they hit the road everyone was going to have breakfast which made another halt for Ben as he didn’t know what the alien he was ate. Oddly enough though, Max handed him some rolled up tinfoil, the ten year old was confused as heck but decided to try it anyway, he could always spit it back out, and going from odd to weird was when Ben actually enjoyed the cheap metal, it seeming to work for him. Gwen was confused on how their grandpa knew this and he told them that he would tell them while talking to Ben’s parents, Ben almost threw up the tinfoil he ate as he had forgotten about that since packing up.  
  
They used Gwen’s computer to video call Ben’s parents while sitting at the kitchen table, and until Max explained to them what had happened to Ben, the ten year old would be staying off screen. Gwen got the camera and app set up, now all they needed was for Carl and Sandra to answer. And thankfully maybe on Max’s part, his son answered the call.  
“Hello? Gwen is that you?” Ben’s dad asked. “Hi uncle Carl, yeah it’s me, and I have grandpa here to.” Gwen said. “Well, hi you two. Did something happen regarding Ben? I’d imagen that’s what this call would be about.” Oh how Ben was already shrinking into the seat with the immediate straight to the point. “Well… something did happen regarding Ben, but he’s not lost or anything,” Max said. “Is he in the hospital?” Carl asked. “No its… this is going to be very hard to explain, but do you remember the plumber stuff I told you and your brother about?” Ben could almost hear the shock on his dads face for some reason, why was he surprised about his own dad being a plumber? It wasn’t that much of an odd job. “Dad. Please, for the love of god, do not tell me you tried to convince Ben and Gwen to become plumbers.” Carl said sounding a little mad. “No, no, nothing like that, but I’m afraid it’s something that the plumbers might have to get involved in. You better get Sandra to come in because it’s a thing that will effect everybody, turn on your computer or something because we’re doing this face to face otherwise you might not believe me.” Carl did just as his dad asked and in a few minutes both Ben’s parents were on screen.  
  
“Okay, we’re here. Now what happened to Ben that might need to have the plumbers involved?” Carl asked and Sandra next to him looking very worried. “Well to put a long story short I’ll summarise it and if you want any specific details just ask, sound good?” Max asked and the two nodded. “Okay, so here’s what happened- when we arrived at the campsite a few hours later Ben went off for a walk by himself when a satellite/meteor fell out of the sky nearly crushed him, when he went to have a look the satellite opened and an odd looking watch was inside. He went to touch it but it jumped up and clamped onto his wrist, then after a bit of fiddling with it, he accidentally turned into a type of fire alien that set the forest on fire. Me and Gwen saw the smoke from the distance and realized Ben might be in that general area so we went in after him, Gwen was the one that found him first but as the fire alien I mentioned. When I got there, we came up with an idea of a back fire to put the main fire out, Ben used his new body to make the fire and it was out in little while. When Ben sat down with us and explained everything I then went to go and check the crash site out, and while I was gone Ben had used the watch thing again and turned into a four armed red skinned alien where a robot then found him and Gwen and started to attack them. Ben carried Gwen out of there, but when he set her down he went after it so it didn’t cause any more trouble for other people. He destroyed it, but without getting injured in the leg. Then another one appeared, and Gwen took care of it when its guard was down with a shovel! Then later when the two got back to the rustbucket, I was patching Ben up when we heard the ranger over my police scanner say of another robot attacking. Ben stood up to the front again, and transformed into a crystalline alien that beat the last robot by deflecting its lasers back at it… and that was it of yesterday when we got up today and are here now talking to you.” Max finished, and needless to say Ben’s parents were shocked.  
  
“Dad, where is Ben now?” Carl asked sternly but with a hint of concern. Both Gwen and Max looked up to behind the computer, and Carl and Sandra heard a jingle like broken glass moving together before the crystalline alien ten year old walked into view coming to a stop behind grandpa Max and Gwen. Sandra gasped and Carl just sat there bug eyed, this was their son on screen and he looked rather nervous as he held his arms close to his body, a trait he shared with his mother whenever he was anxious. And speaking of the woman, she was the first to open her mouth to speak. “Ben?...” she asked hushly. The boy looked away for a bit then looked back and silently nodded, clearly ashamed or nervous. Sandra held her hands to her chest and looked like she was almost about to cry, Carl then stepped in and looked to his dad. “How quickly can you get to the abandoned storage unite outside of Bellwood?” he asked. Gwen and Ben knew of the place, it was a massive and quiet place where they could probably talk without having other people see Ben. “If we hit the road now, in a few hours.” Max answered. “We want to see Ben in person, we’ll meet you there.” Carl said then ending the call.  
  
Max sighed, that went as well as it probably could have gone. He looked behind himself to Ben who looked just relived as well, he was probably just glad that he didn’t get yelled at. “How are you feeling Ben?” Max asked. “Relieved. I’m just glad that I’m not in trouble,” Ben said. “Well everyone better strap in because we’ve got a long drive back to Bellwood to cover,” Max said then heading up to the driver’s seat.  
Gwen and Ben looked at each other and both gave a sigh, they were glad that was taken care of for the time being and that the atmosphere was clearing up. Ben sat back down in his previous seat when they all heard a ripping sound, Ben looked behind him to see that his back spikes had cut into the passenger seat. “Umm, oops.” Ben said before leaning forward so they wouldn’t do anymore damage. Max sighed, “maybe swap places you two, nothing can get punctured from the other seat.” The two did as asked but Ben still slumped forward onto the table, hiding his face in his arms, this was going to take a bit for him to get used to.  
  
Gwen watched as Ben rested his head on the table, and as much as Gwen liked it when Ben was quiet, seeing him down in the dumps this bad and quiet didn’t seem like it belonged in the slightest, she then recalled the food that they said they brought last night, she tapped Ben’s arm to get his attention and when the hefty crystalline alien ten year old lifted his head she asked, “you said you brought chips with you right? Would you like me to get them?” Ben seemed to ponder this for a bit then slowly nod. Gwen hopped out of her seat and headed to the back of the RV for Ben’s items, when she came back she had a half-eaten bag of chips and a bit of heart candy for herself, Ben took the bag from her and ate one chip to see if he could eat them as this alien which proved to be a big fat no as he immediately spat it out. “Ugh… yuck.” Ben commented. Gwen then handed him one single piece of heart candy to see if he could eat it, he dropped it in his mouth and seemed to find it not as disgusting but he knew he wouldn’t be able to take a few more. “Not bad, but I think if I took more I’d spit it out.” Ben said slumping his head back down but this time just resting it on his arms, at least he wasn’t back to hiding.  
  
  
Once they arrived back at Bellwood, Ben felt a little more at ease, it was some place familiar. When they arrived at the abandoned storage unite Ben hopped out immediately to stretch out, he felt very cramped in the rustbucket. “Man do I have a new found regard for tall people, the back aches they must get from hunching over so much must get ridiculously painful after a while.” Ben said doing some basic stretches when he had an idea come to his mind to change forms, he felt the most comfortable in the four armed guy so it made sense. Ben dialled up the form on the watch and hit the face down again, and just like before in a second, the red skinned alien was back.  
“Your parents should be here in a few minutes Ben, so keep an eye out, especially if anyone sees you. The last thing we need is you being taken a picture off,” Max said peeking out from the camper door. Ben gave a thumbs up and began to walk around to scout the immediate area, Gwen deciding to join him. “Wait up dweeb,” she called out after her cousin. “Not my fault your slow,” Ben said still walking. “You’re the one with the massive stride now!” Gwen shouted as she caught up.  
  
The two walked around some of the buildings, Ben having to walk really slow so Gwen could keep up with him, he supposed this was a rare thing though when he didn’t mind, it was nice to just freely walk and take in the scenery while enjoying the silence, until Gwen suddenly yelped in pain, “ow!” Ben turned around quickly to see what had happened, finding his cousin standing on the one foot and seeming to be in pain from the other. He quickly knelt down and used one hand to help balance her by the back and another to see what had happened by lifting her ankle, Ben gave a quick glance at the underside of Gwen’s shoe to see that a very big nail went through the sole and was cutting into her heel. Ben could already see blood start to drip from the nail so he removed her shoe but kept a hold of it just in case they could fix it, the nail coming out with the shoe. Gwen winced but once the shoe was removed she peeled off her own sock that had a big spot of red where the nail had gone, Ben could now see just how much of a mess that big nail made, “that looks kinda deep, we need grandpa to have a look at it.” Ben said using his lower pairs of arms again to lift her up and then began to walk, but Gwen protested, “I do not want to be carried by you like this, it makes me look like a baby.” Gwen said crossing her arms while looking up at the red giant, without stopping, Ben then took to a different method and lifted Gwen up to his blank shoulder that didn’t have the watch on it, “if anyone saw me carrying you like that, I’d think there’d be something up to.” Ben said continuing to walk when they saw the rustbucket in sight.  
  
When the two came closer they spotted a car driving up close to the rustbucket and realized it was Ben’s parents, the red skinned alien went into a fast walk to get there, feeling a little more confident from the first time his parents didn’t freak that much.  
Carl and Sandra exited their car and Sandra was the first to spot Ben walking up, she didn’t recognise the alien so she backed away slightly when she noticed Gwen on the aliens shoulder. Ben continued to make his way to the rustbucket and when Max came out he was surprised to see Gwen bleeding, “what happened here?” he asked. “she stood on a big nail that went through her shoe, it got in pretty deep I think.” Ben said showing Gwen so their grandpa could have a look. He checked it then looking to Gwen, “have you had your tetanus shot recently Gwen?” Max asked then motioning Ben to hand her to him, “yeah, my mum took me to the doctor a week before now.” She answered as she was taken inside the rustbucket then sat down at the kitchen table where she opened the window so she could still see Ben while getting treated.  
  
Ben turned around to face his parents who looked surprised, but this was one of the transformations his grandpa mentioned him being before so he hoped they connected the dots. Ben’s mother slowly walked around her husband and approached her son, “Ben…?” she asked quietly. He slowly nodded and began to look away from her, out of what? not even he was sure. She began to pick up pace at the answer and nearly walked into him, hesitantly placed her hands on his fore arm. To think this was the same little boy she gave birth to ten years ago, now he was standing taller than her and looked to be almost warrior like.  
Ben sat himself down sitting on his knees and let his mother guide his movements, she turned over his hand, he would let her. “Ben…” she whispered in a sob holding onto his arm, he pulled her in and gave her a gentle hug, he could feel her tears starting to seep into what he had for clothes and he could feel his own of what he had for tears start to build up, “mum…” he got out holding her close. She held out her palm to his cheek, her thumb gliding back and forth across his rough skin at some attempt at consolation, his eyes lulling shut into her touch as an odd rumbling emitted from his chest, apparently that being a very deep purr as he was held in his mother’s embrace.  
  
  
While that was happening, Carl walked into the rustbucket to see his dad wrapping a bandage around his nieces foot. They needed to talk about things going forward. He sat down on the opposite seat and waited until Max was finished, “please tell me you have a way to turn Ben back to normal,” Carl asked. Max stood and looked to his son with a sad look on his face, “I honestly don’t know, Ben tried before to search for a form that at least looked like a human, and the closest he got was the one he’s in now, and he hasn’t exactly timed out or anything yet. I could bring the kids to mount Rushmore to the plumber base there, and we’ll see if they have something to get the watch off.” Max said peering back to check on Ben and Sandra then looking back to his son, “I could still try to make it a summer vacation for them, we would have to pass through a few states before reaching the base anyway.” Max said looking to Gwen who seemed to already be liking the idea. “And if for some reason we can’t get the watch off, Ben will need all the practice he can get with it.” Max said in an all fair point of if the worst were to happen.  
Carl wasn’t exactly happy with the idea of this still being a vacation for Ben anymore, because what could Ben possibly enjoy about this going forward? Apparently a lot, as Max reminded his son that Ben did fight an alien robot last night and seemed to be enjoying the idea of being a hero, all be it with a technical curse. Carl in the end had to give in, he was well aware that Ben was still a child and shouldn’t be making other people’s things his problem, but at the same time how was he to really be a kid in this situation? If they couldn’t even get the watch off then that left a problem for the rest of Ben’s life, maybe being an alien powered super hero wouldn’t be a bad career choice, and he knew his dad or more specifically the plumbers would have Ben’s back.  
  
Carl stood up and walked out of the RV towards his son and deciding it was his turn to have him a look over, he walked up to his wife and son and his presence broke then apart. When Sandra stepped far enough away he circled Ben slowly and then did the same thing his wife did by guiding his arm around to have a look, he then looked Ben in the eyes and gave him a sad small smile, “how you feeling champ?” he asked. Ben smiled back and held his dad close for a second before responding, “just a little stiff, nothing I probably can’t stretch out.” Carl was happy with that answer, and looked over to his father before looking back to Ben. “Me and your grandpa came to a decision to let him take you and your cousin on a road trip, hopefully by the time you get to your destination they can take the watch off.” The young boy smiled almost giddy, he was glad that things have gone so well so far regarding his parents, “awesome!” Ben shouted raising his arms in the air, “but on one condition,” Sandra said making Carl a little confused and Ben worried that he might have started to celebrate to early. “You will check in with us twice every week, just so you know we love you and support you through this.” Sandra said. “I can already take a guess about that you guys, I will check up on you sometimes but does it have to be twice every week?” Ben asked. “You think you know these things, but you can’t hear them enough Ben. It never hurts to have that extra knowledge of support in the back of your mind.” Sandra said making Ben think of her as a fortune cookie in that moment. “Okay I agree, but you might not see me like this every time.” Ben said gesturing to himself. “Then can you show us?” Carl asked honestly curious about what his sons other forms looked like.  
  
Ben smiled and stood up then walked a little distance away. He dialled up his diamond form he was in before and hit the watch down, who was standing there after the flash of light was the crystalline body of the diamond-headed-guy that his grandpa called him before, and honestly, Ben started to like the name of Diamondhead, maybe he could name his forms.  
Ben transformed his arm into a blade like what he did before when fighting the robot and then transformed it back, “I bet I could make you a nice necklace for next mother’s day mum.” Ben said smiling smugly. Sandra giggled a little then watched again as her son transformed, this time into the fire guy he first transformed into. “This was the one I started out as,” Ben said then blowing a flamethrower from his palms into the sky. The Tennyson’s present clapped in congratulations at the show of power and Ben didn’t have to worry about setting anything on fire this time as the ground under him was asphalt. “That’s the only ones I’ve turned into so far, I’ll have to see about the other ones later,” Ben said then transforming back to the diamond head one when he suddenly felt a little nauseous. “Oof…” Ben groaned out holding his stomach.  
  
The other Tennyson’s present grew a slow look of concern on their faces as they watched Ben walk back over, his mother meeting him half way. “Ben? Are you okay?” she asked. “I don’t know, I just suddenly started feeling sick,” Ben said being led back into the RV. Once he was sat down in the right seat of the kitchen table, so he didn’t teer anything, Max gave him a glass of water and a balled up tinfoil ball, “my best guess is that transforming to quickly can make you feel sick Ben.” Max said throwing in his two bits. “That does sound like something that could make you nauseous, the constant perspective changing along with the DNA constantly changing, it could make you feel sick or make you on your way to deaths door at worst.” Gwen said. Ben took the water and tinfoil when he went back to slumping his head on the table again, his mother gently rubbing circles on his back. “Well we won’t keep you from probably getting this fixed any longer, hopefully the next time we see you in person everything will be back to normal.” Carl said then giving Ben a ruffle of his head then stepping out. “We’ll talk to you soon,” Sandra said then walking out with her husband. “Bye you guys,” Ben waved to them with a smile as he watched them get in their car and drive off. “Well, let’s hit the road you two. We got a long travel ahead of us,” Max said then walking up to the driver’s seat. “Yes!” Ben and Gwen cheered.  
  
  
As the two were leaving, a question Gwen had been having in the back of her mind came to surface again. “Hey grandpa? what exactly did you mean by ‘plumbers’ when you were talking to uncle Carl?” she asked. Max sighed, he knew he had to explain it to them. So why not now as a better time than ever? “Well… a long time ago when I was in my younger years, I was a jet piolet turned astronaut when I was approached by these people who worked for a higher government agency called the plumbers. They were basically the earth based workers of the universal space police, and after a bit I joined them. Their main base on earth is in mount Rushmore, so that’s where we’re heading to try and get that watch off of Ben, or at least get him back to human. And speaking of which, here Ben, catch.” Max said opening the glove box and tossing Ben a small disc, he caught it but was confused on what it was. “That is an A.L.D.B computer, alien-lifeform-data-base. I want you to scan yourself with it by pressing the red button on it.” Ben complied by holding his arm out and pressing the red button, a scanner came out and swiped over his arm. When it was done, information popped up in a hologram. “It says I’m something called a… Petrosapien? And am around the age exchange of a human ten year old.” Ben read out. “Gwen, I want you to hand one of your blank books to Ben because I want him to start studying the aliens he can transform into, I want you to find out as much as you can about your aliens Ben, like what they eat to even how their culture is. I don’t care how boring this may seem but if we can’t get that watch off you, or even turn you back, then this will become as much of a necessity as cooking.” Max said watching Ben scroll through the info of the alien he was. For the ten year old, this was like reading an official book of one of his favourite video games, like there was so much extra lore that the games didn’t tell you about. Ben was honestly all for it, it was like being told he had to do a thorough analysis of his favourite comic book, this so far sounded to awesome! “to be honest, this is like my English teacher telling me I get to breakdown my favourite comic book for an essay, I think I’m going to enjoy this,” Ben said smiling as he continued to read and scroll when he came across a graph that had writing in bold letters something that made whatever he had for blood run cold. “Presumed extinct…” Ben hushed out. Gwen could only see the screen backwards from her seat, so she got up and walked to behind Ben to have a look. “These Petrosapien guys are extinct? Then how are you able to become one?” Gwen asked. Ben shrugged his shoulders. “You can have a brainstorm about it later, right now Ben I want you to start writing.” Max said. Ben nodded his head and looked to Gwen who got him out a book and pencil, at least it would be quiet for a while.


	2. Washington B.C.E.

It had been a few weeks since Ben got the watch, and the Tennyson’s residing in the Rust Bucket had fallen into a routine. Ben would often sleep in his Petrosapien form, or as he had dubbed it, Diamondhead. He had discovered a few more of the other aliens in the watch which included one called a Galvan, Ben would often use this one to eat as most of the bugs their grandpa kept for food Ben could actually eat in this form, and it seemed his full stomach would transfer over to other forms. When that was done, it was just a day of driving around and seeing if anyone needed saving, or if they were in an area that didn’t have many people Ben would practice with his alien forms, and if it was a day that his parents called he would of course answer and spend hours talking with them.  
  
Diamondhead was the main form he stayed in most of the time when doing day-to-day tasks, as it was a form he caused the less destruction in and the second form he felt the most ‘human’ in for the lack of a better term. A four armed form he had would have been his first choice if it wasn’t too big for him to fit in the rust bucket, the race of that alien was called a Tetramand and he dubbed that form of his Four arms, it would normally be his first choice because it was the one he felt the most comfortable in, but again, it was too big to fit in most places.  
Another one he would have chosen to be if it wasn’t so hazardous would actually be the first one he ever transformed into, a Pyronite, or as he had dubbed the form, Heatblast. Another one he discovered was called a Kineceleran, it was basically a velociraptor on wheels but dam was it fast, he called that one XLR8 and left it to a form that was basically really fast because it didn’t feel humanoid enough for him to use it constantly. On paper a form that Ben had seen with Gwen as a silhouette looked humanoid enough called a Galvanic Mechamorph, the only problem was the body itself was unstable, Ben described it as trying to make water freeze in the right place to form a beautiful statute by pouring it, the best plus to that alien though that he dubbed Upgrade was that his original voice spoke through it, all-be-it with an autotune layer, the family only hoped that his voice would change with age but otherwise it was one of the closest forms Ben had to at least sounding like his old self.  
One that Ben also writ off as a ‘ _don’t use often_ ’ was a Vulpimancer, or as he called his own form of the species, Wildmutt. It was an alien that- A; walked on all fours, B; couldn’t talk, and C; couldn’t see, well, not _‘see’_ in the normal sense that he was used to, he could smell everything like a 360 camera but he couldn’t see what pictures where on a TV or a photo. A form that Gwen and Ben dreaded the first time seeing it even in a hologram was Ben’s Piscciss Volann form that he charmingly called, Ripjaws. Ripjaws they found out very quickly was amphibious, so that form was strictly for the time being to be used near water or until he was older, as when Ben researched the race, he found out that the older a Piscciss Volann is, the longer they can go without water. The second last one was a Lepidopterran, an alien that was one of Ben’s favourites because it could fly, but the body type and odder for the others made the form next to unbearable sometimes to be around, hence why Ben called the form, Stinkfly. The last one was one that Ben was also a fan of, but purely because of its usefulness, and that was an Ectonurite. This alien was a lot how Ben and Gwen imagined a ghost, it made for perfect when sneaking around and another one that could fly, but it was a little too freaky for Gwen and Max’s taste, also hence the name Ghostfreak.  
  
  
But right now for the current situation. Ben as Heatblast was running through a burning building when he spotted a mother and son trying to escape, the roof nearly falling on them when he caught it. The boy looking younger than Ben looked up to him as he held the ceiling, “who are you?” he asked. “I’m here to help, now let’s say we blow this joint like the last year birthday candle it is huh?” Heatblast said then dropping the roof debris and using his powers to absorb some of the fire to at least get them out the door. He beckoned them to come forward and the kid ran before his mother as they made their way out, Heatblast making sure to swipe away at the fire that came to close. He looked down to the kid who had a sumo slammers themed backpack, trying to lighten the mood as they moved he asked, “you like sumo slammers?” the boy looked up to him and nodded. “You heard of the gold sumo slammers card? I’m trying to get more detail about it to give it to a friend of mine.” Heatblast asked. “Yeah, I got the one in here through a trading game, and the guy who got it said he got it from a cereal box.” The boy said smiling. “Cool, and that’s coming from the guy made out of fire.” Heatblast said then getting them to the bottom of the stairs and opening the front door, “civilians first,” he quipped. The boy and his mother stepped out and the boy turned towards him, “are you a super hero?” he asked. “Nope, I’m an alien. Name’s Heatblast, maybe I’ll see ya around,” Heatblast said then seeing the rust bucket pull up with Gwen out the front passenger seat.  
  
“Yo super doofus! The fire was just a diversion to cover up a jewellery store robbery, the bad guys are getting away!” Gwen said then watching Heatblast run into the RV. Ben held on as they sped off, trying to stand his balance, “trade places you two, the robbers are on the move and we’ll need Ben in front.” Max said. The two swapped positions with Ben sitting in the passenger seat, and Gwen sitting at the kitchen table when she realized something that they all over looked… Ben was still on fire. Once Ben was sitting down Max sniffed the air as smoke started to pore around the RV when he realized why, he looked to Ben and sighed, “I knew I should have bought those seat covers when I had the chance.” Ben looked to just realize the situation as well, “sorry grandpa…” he said frowning at the damage he was causing, this was exactly why Heatblast was a superhero form only unless they needed a campfire. Gwen had gotten up and grabbed a fire extinguisher and hosed Ben with it, “hey!” he shouted as it felt like hot water just doused his back and head. “Ten aliens on that stupid watch and you pick the one with the flaming butt?” Gwen asked with her extinguisher in hand. “I’d ask if your jealous, but that’s what a person who isn’t a monster would say,” Ben said glaring back at his cousin who only hosed him again at the failed attempt to guilt trip her.  
  
As they approached the car Ben leaned out the passenger window and charged up a fire ball, when he threw it, it destroyed the getaway cars wheels and Heatblast cheered, “strike!” As the car started to skid Max pulled over and let Ben jump out, when the car hit the next buildings wall he quickly came up to the driver’s side door and saw that they were still conscious and looked fine. With that in mind to add a little bit of the intimidation factor he ripped the door off and crushed it in front of them, “unless you punks want a permanent sun burn, hands against the wall.” Heatblast threatened then watched as the two crooks got out. When he heard the police sirens coming, he made one last look at the crooks and huffed out harshly that made the fire on his head blow up a bit, like a bull about to charge. With the intimidation thoroughly burned into their minds, Heatblast turned tail and ran back to the rust bucket and once he closed the door he quickly turned into Diamondhead. Without waiting another beat, Max turned the RV around and they were off.  
Ben sat down in the kitchen chair with Gwen opposite to him again, he knew she didn’t have much room for choice because he ruined the passenger seat but it did give him the deja vu of when they first did this. “So, where are we off to now?” Ben asked. “We’re going food shopping, and also going to see if they have any new covers for the front seat,” Max said looking over to his grandkids. “Am I coming with…?” Ben asked, he obviously would stick out from a crowd being an alien made of crystal or diamond. “Not as Diamondhead you’re not, Grey matter though,” Max left that open ended. Ben smiled and waited until they were closer to the store to transform into Grey matter.  
  
Once they were, Ben transformed into Grey matter and hid in his grandpa Max’s shirt, this was really the only way he could get around out in the open anymore, and obviously even then he had to hide. It was something they came across when Ben really wanted to get out of the rust bucket one day, so Gwen put on a hoodie and let him travel as Grey matter in the hood, and that became a new way for Ben to travel with his cousin and grandpa. “Only caned octopus? I thought this store prided itself on wide selection,” Max said reading the label of a can. “Maybe it’s because we’re in the cans isle?” Grey matter said looking out from under his grandpa’s shirt collar. Ben was a little perturbed by the food choice, but he knew he could eat it if he went Ripjaws but he wasn’t so sure on Gwen… maybe he could find her a recipe to turn it into deep fried and he could help her with it later, he was told at least that calamari and octopus were similar.  
“Umm, grandpa, no offence but can we have a normal dinner for once? You know, one that doesn’t involve stir fried tentacles?” Gwen asked. “I’ve heard before that calamari and octopus weren’t that different, you and I could set up a cooking book later and make them deep fried,” Ben said. Gwen held out her hands and let Ben hop over to her as he quickly hid under her shirt and hair by clinging onto her nape. “Oh nonsense, now where do you suppose they keep the sheep’s bladder?” even Ben had to gag at that one, he didn’t think any of his forms could eat that.  
  
As the two kept on walking around, Ben made an audible gasp that Gwen and Max caught as Ben spotted something. “What is it?” Gwen asked. Ben pointed to an advertisement that had sumo slammers on it, “sumo slammers cards! A complete set!” Ben cheered. He wanted to go over and have a look, but his current situation made it close to impossible as he was a small alien needing to rely on ether Gwen or his grandpa, heck, he was pretty sure to think he couldn’t even collect things like that anymore, he’d figured he’d ask his parents to buy some online or something when summer was over, he didn’t exactly have much option. “Gwen, do you want to bring Ben over there to have a look?” Ben made a pleading gesture to his cousin who sighed and began to walk over.  
Once they were there, Gwen had a good view of how sharp Grey matters teeth were exactly as Ben smiled like the true excited ten year old he was. “Are these the cardboard things you collect?” Gwen asked. “Yep! I obviously can’t do much of that now because of this, but once it’s over I plan to ask my parents to see if they can get me the gold one online,” Ben said then looking back to where their grandpa went. “Let’s catch up to him, I’ve had my day dreaming,” Gwen didn’t need to be told twice as she began to walk off when the two of them heard a rumbling almost like an earthquake. “What’s that?” Ben and Gwen asked hoping the other would know when they had their answer.  
  
A massive toad or frog thing had crashed through the wall with a man riding it. Ben hid in Gwen’s hair while she found a place to hide herself, she slid behind the technology case and watched on for a bit. They both saw the man jump off the frog/toad and begin to steal some items, “hey, what do you think you’re doing?” Gwen asked stepping out from her hiding place. Ben was ready to choose another alien as soon as he could without this guy seeing, but apparently the amphibian had other choices as it launched its tongue at Gwen, thankfully it missed but hit a box display behind her and made it fall onto her and Ben. “Don’t be a hero kid, just run along and play,” the guy said taking a look at Gwen then walking back to his frog. Ben tapped her shoulder and pointed to somewhere that seemed to be hidden from prying eyes, he could change forms just not on front of this guy. Gwen nodded and ran to behind some of the other isles while the mall security ran past them the way they came.  
  
Once the two were sure they were in the clear, Ben was set down on the floor and hit the watch that was on his back, it transforming him into Four arms. Ben grinned at the random change and cracked his knuckles, this seemingly going to be a walk in the park. He ran out from the isles and left Gwen to see herself to the situation, which she did by following not far behind her cousin.  
Once the Tetramand caught up with the animals he found them in the pet section with some of the creatures up for sale, along with his grandpa who had apparently walked this way after leaving the two ten year olds. He spotted Ben and then Gwen coming up behind the alien and quickly made his way over to them, the man who had broken in causing this ruckus in the first place turned a diel that was on his chest and quickly soon after, a beam of red lightning came from the antenna on his helmet and struck a hamster that was on for sale as well as a budgie bird, “arise to your full potential my pets!” the man cheered. Once that was done, the animals all turned to face Ben with the previous hamster seeming to growl at Four arms and the red skinned alien had to fight back the urge to growl back himself, he was a hero not an animal like these guys.  
  
“Behold the genius of doctor Animo, nothing can stop me from getting what I deserve, mark my words. Today, I will make history, or should I say, pre-history!” the guy who was apparently called Animo shouted, Ben had just about heard enough of this guy talking like he really was some hot-shot, I mean, all he had to do was look in a mirror and he could see something more impressive, he was stuck as ten different aliens for crying out loud.  
Four arms huffed as he walked forward, “are you ever going to shut up? Because nobody cares.” Animo seemed to take a double look at Ben as he seemed to realize something, “what?! I thought you were an animal that my device hit from behind me, don’t tell me I hit a human and this was the result,” the crazy doctor said sounding disappointed. “Not even close, I’m from a more, out of this world perspective, hya!” Four arms cried as he charged at the hamster and immediately tackled it, throwing it swiftly into a few shelves which pinned it. Animo backed away and declared against the red alien, “I don’t know what you are exactly, but you cannot stop me! I will turn Washington DC into Washington B.C!” Animo then jumped off the frog and landed on the bird, then crashing through the sun roof and making his getaway, the frog leaping off after him.  
  
Four arms smiled at a job well done when he was approached by who he could assume the store owner. “You saved the store! If there is anything I can do to repay you, anything you want!” as much as Ben would love to spell out a list he knew this Animo guy had to come first, “I’ll get back to you on that, for now I gotta get after that guy.” Four arms then leaped out the way Animo escaped, but actually quickly did a double back to head toward the rust bucket to wait for his grandpa and Gwen. He quickly transformed into something small to fit into the RV which happened to be XLR8, he tumbled into the vehicle through a window and righted himself as soon as Gwen and Max came through the door. Gwen saw his choice and was a little confused, “why did you pick the speed lizard?” “That’s XLR8, and it was the first smallest form that came up.” Ben said then both cousins taking a seat and holding on as the Rust Bucket took off.  
  
When they were under the flying bird Max couldn’t help but remis, “aah, just like the good old days before I retired.” It had been awhile since Max had explained to Ben and Gwen what exactly he meant before when he said that he was a plumber, he kind of had to in the sense because they were heading to the base at mount Rushmore to hopefully fix up Ben, and he had to also explain how he knew so much about different alien species, like when he treated Ben in his Tetramand form and how he already knew what a Petrosapien ate.  
“I wonder if they except mismatching aliens as plumbers, if we can’t get this watch off then that might be the closest to a normal job I can get in the future.” Ben said from the kitchen table. “I’d imagen you’d make a darn good one Ben with or without the watch, but if you did keep the thing then I’d imagen you’d be a magister in no time.” “What’s a magister?” Gwen asked. “A magister is basically the most top rank you can get from working with the plumbers, the general of the place if you will,” Max answered happily for his grandkids. “Cool!” Ben shouted with his tail wagging behind him, he clearly found the idea intriguing at least. “Bingo!” Gwen shouted getting the boys attentions, she had been on the computer for most of the time and had seemed to find something. “five years ago, Dr Animo was a promising researcher in veterinary science, but it turned out he was doing all these twisted genetic experiments where he was mutating animals. And when he didn’t win some big prize called the verities award he flipped out,” Gwen said reading an article about the said scientist they were following. “Good work Gwen,” Max praised when he looked back to Animo and saw him soring off. “Dam, lost him.”  
  
Ben hissed in a little frustration, hitting a clawed hand to the table. “He could be heading anywhere in Washington DC,” Gwen complained when the specific word stuck out to Ben, “B.C! He was talking about turning the place into Washington B.C! And if he was a guy that delved in animal science, I’d think it lead to the dinosaurs in the natural history museum,” Ben explained standing up in excitement before having to sit back down again. “Guess even a doofus can surprise you every once in a while,” Gwen teased. Ben glared at her but was stopped in the action as their grandpa made a sharp turn to the direction of the museum. “Something tells me your onto something Ben, I guess we’ll find out when we get there.” Max said as they drove full speed.  
  
At the front door to the building, the family spotted massive bird feathers indicating that Animo was already here. As the trio walked in they quietly strode through the dinosaur exhibit to find the mad doctor fiddling with something next to a woolly mammoth, “you are very persistent, I hate persistent.” Animo said looking over his shoulder to the Tennyson’s and taking the notice of the blue raptor like creature behind the old man and little girl, “what happened to the four armed monster? He decide to take a vacation or something?” he asked. XLR8 rolled forward revealing his whole body, “he’s on break for now, so you get to deal with me,” XLR8 hissed as he got ready into a fighting stance but not flipping down his visor just yet. “We know all about your freaky experiments Dr Animo, it’s over,” Gwen said pointing that the mad doctor. “Oh but how it has only just began, you see I only needed a few more components to push my plan into faze two, the reanimation of dormant cells,” Animo proclaimed. Ben looked back at his family in confusion, “does this guy come with subtitles?” clearly not understanding what the doc was saying. “breathing life back into that which has been long since lifeless, observe!” Animo then hit the dial that was on his chest and aimed it at the mammoth he had been standing next to.  
  
The ancient elephant started to animate with life as it cried out and stomped off its raised pedestal, “behold the genius of Dr Animo!” Animo cheered before running into the next room. XLR8 backed up a bit with a nervous expression on his face, “aw man, wrong alien!” the trio then dodged a charge from the hairy beast by leaping to the side, and when it crashed into other exhibits that took a few seconds for the team to make a plan. “You guys go after Animo, I’ll deal with this.” XLR8 then hit the watches face and in a quick flash who was there was Four Arms again, he stood up tall and cracked each of his knuckles as the mammoth turned around. “Let’s wrestle,” he remarked before charging at the elephant and grabbing it by the tusks then flipping it onto its side.  
When Ben had the mammoth distracted, that left for Max and Gwen to go after the doctor. They turned the corner to the next corridor and were brought face to face with the bird Animo had mutated before, the monster screeched at them in a poise to attack when they backed up into a display with a spear. Gwen pulled out the spear and used it as a bow-staff, smacking the bird a few times before it turned and ran from the perceived threat, “Ben’s not the only one with skills.” Gwen said smugly then pressing forward with her grandpa.  
  
When they walked into the next room, they were just in time to see Animo point his ray at a T-rex skeleton. Flesh, organs and muscle grew around the old bones and red eyes took place in the skull, the dino stepped down from its leverage still with some muscle and bone exposed and roared at them, the two Tennyson’s looking on in shock.  
Back with Ben, the mammoth had gotten up and thrown the Tetramand against a wall, Four Arms sitting up with shaky coordination from the blow before regaining his senses and charging at the mammoth, punching it left and right then trying to jump onto it but then being thrown into the air and crashing into another exhibit. “I am getting really sick of this, you are so going down now peanut,” Four Arms declared righting himself up then making another charge at the prehistoric elephant and grabbing it by the trunk, he began to spin the animal like holding a bucket by some rope and once he gained enough momentum he threw the monster at a wall and let it be crushed under the debris. “Oh… I’m gonna be sick.” Ben groggily commented not exactly wanting to find out what he would hurl or even how much of it he could considering how big he was. He steadily made his way to where Gwen and Max went but held back slightly just in case there was a crowd.  
  
Speaking of his grandpa and cousin, they were actually not holding up in good shape on their end. Animo had mounted the t-rex and took to riding it like a horse, “I’d like to stay, but I need to claim the award I so richly deserve.” The doctor said before using the t-rex to smash through a wall and make his escape. As Gwen and Max looked on in terror of what just happened, they were caught off guard when the mutated bird from before came back and picked up Gwen in its talons and flew off.  
Gwen screamed for her life as she was swooped away, Ben just barely making it into the hallway before he heard his grandpa call out, “Ben!” the senior called. The Tetramand pushed aside his queasiness and ran into a sprint to catch up with what was going on, he managed to see Gwen being taken away and made a fast leap to grab onto the bird, gripping it by the feathers.  
  
The bird squawked in pain at its feathers being ripped out but Ben was quick to grab onto its feet in stead so he had multiple angles of grip. “No fly-by for you,” Ben remarked as he turned to grab Gwen. He held onto her using his top pair of arms and hung onto the bird by its feet using his lower pair, once he was sure the bird didn’t have her, he let go holding the little girl to his chest with all four arms as he was planning to be her cushion which despite her screaming thankfully proved to be a success as he landed harshly into the concrete creating a massive crater.  
“Oooh…” Ben groaned as he slowly sat up from the crater, he was now feeling incredibly sore and back to being sick. Gwen moved off her cousin pretty shaken up as he tried to move but it was wobbly when their grandpa came down into the ditch. “Are you two okay?” he asked checking up on them. “I’m definitely going to feel that tomorrow, and… herk!” Ben then threw up to the side, covering the image with his body from his other family members. “I’m shaken but otherwise good,” Gwen quivered out. She then looked to her cousin who was wiping his mouth from the spew, “thanks,” she smiled. “Your surprisingly a good cushion.” “You so owe me to at least stay as Four Arms tonight for some sleep.” Ben said standing up then reaching to his back trying to feel the extent of the pain, he hissed through his teeth when his fingers brushed over what was becoming a fast nasty bruise. “I’ll give you some ice to sweeten it.” Ben smiled and the family climbed out of the crater.  
  
Once they were in the Rust Bucket, Max had shown them that Animo had dropped a piece of paper, “doctor Kelly accepts verities award,” Gwen read out. “He’s going to go and get his award,” Ben said. “Can you transform into something to get there Ben?” Max asked from the drivers seat. “I’m nauseous as is, if I became XLR8 or Stinkfly now I’d go head first into a poll or building.” Ben said from sitting on the carpet floor as Four Arms still. “I believe we’re faster than a t-rex in the Rust Bucket, lets just be glad we didn’t take to much time with that bird.” Gwen said looking to Ben who had a dark red bruise crawling up from underneath his clothing. “Speak for yourself…” Ben muttered resting his head in his hands. “I just hope we can get there in time, be prepared to jump out Ben when we arrive.” Max said and Ben wordlessly nodded.  
  
When they came up to the other scientists house, Dr Kelly they believed, they could already see a hole in the side of the building. Ben leaped out of the RV door and sprinted up to the building looking threw to see the condition, what he saw he was glad he arrived when he did, the rex was just about to bite down on another man when Four Arms charged in clocked the dino in the jaw, he would be really surprised if that didn’t break something. He used both arms on his right side to hold the rex’s jaw closed and to also pull it down closer so he could reach Animo, he grabbed the doctor by the devise he’s been using this whole time and crushed it in one hand, then using the other to grab him by the shirt and hold him face to face with a growl ripping it’s way through his teeth.  
The rex he was holding then fell apart at the seams and in the process of Ben backing away he stood on something that looked like one of those science-y bottles, “no!” Animo cried looking at the thing Ben just broke, the hidden ten year old assuming that was the trofie the guy was after. “How dare you!-” Animo began to shout when he was sharply cut off by Four Arms before he could say another word. “How dare I?! HOW DARE YOU!” Ben roared. “You sent my family on a bird joy ride, attacked them with a hamster, a mammoth, and a dinosaur! You telling me how dare I?! I should send you to the most confined prison myself, or throw you half way across the state!” Ben yelled letting the expression of the doctor say it all that he was terrified. “Your just lucky I don’t want any trouble with he law myself, so I’m just going to hold you here until the authorities arrive.” Ben said crossing what he could of his arms or placing one on his hip when he heard a shuffling from the rubble, he looked over to find that other scientist who actually won the award looking on gob smacked. “You the guy he tried to steal the trofie from?” Ben asked, the man nodded. “What the heck were you doing that managed to trump the stuff that he was doing?” he asked pointing to Animo. “It was five years ago, I managed to create a prototype small time machine but I haven’t been able to get past that. At the time Animo was making dangerous evolutions of more deadly animals like snakes and the like so his research was pulled.” The scientist said when they all heard police sirens coming up. When the cops came through the hole they saw Four Arms holding up Animo by the shirt and didn’t exactly know how to react, Ben tossed Animo to them then calmly walked past them to the RV. “He’s your guy. Check the footage at the museum as well as the M mart.” He then climbed in and Max wasted no time in speeding away.  
  
Later, after they had all calmed down and Ben’s sickness was finally gone and they were on the road, Gwen and Ben were currently in the process of figuring out how to take Four Arms shirt off as it seemed he was actually wearing a one piece suit. “Okay so the A.L.D.B says that magnetized connected clothing is actually sort of common for people wearing armour over it, so all we have to do is run a small magnet along where you would expect it to split.” Gwen said after giving the computer that their grandpa gave them a look through. “Hey grandpa, got any magnets?” Ben asked still as Four Arms and sitting on the floor, he was to big to really stand up but it was okay for him to just sit in the middle of the RV. “Junk draw, first container to the left.” Max said and Gwen hopped up out of her seat to have a look, and sure enough she grabbed out a magnet.  
She handed it to Ben who ran it against his waist line and the pants he had on and the shirt he had became separate. He carefully managed to remove his shirt to reveal the red aliens muscular torso, it was a considered given of stating the obvious that this was probably to be expected of this form but it was still a little awkward seeing Four Arms with out a shirt on. But what was definitely not normal was the big bruise covering most of his back, Gwen had gotten out an ice pack before and gently applied it to Ben’s back and the transformed boy sighed heavily in relief, beginning to purr again as he let the coolness soothe his sore body. “Alright you two, I’ll let you have a few minuets before you head off to bed, we’ve got an exciting day tomorrow so you better be well rested.” Max said looking at his grandkids through the rear view mirror. “Fine by me,” Ben said. “Same, I could use some sleep.” Gwen said almost trying to relax where she sat at the table.  
  
Once night rolled around, the agreement that Gwen and Ben had made was in effect. Normally Ben would sleep as Diamondhead on a futon out of the way so if Gwen had to go to the bathroom she could, but Ben was now sleeping as Four Arms which was much more comfortable for him, using the futon now as a pillow and resting his body under the bunks, so if Gwen wanted to get down, she would need to find a way to jump over Ben. But she settled for a temporary situation of taking up what was left of the futon, her head resting close to Ben’s as the two snored softly. Ben’s shirt still off so his back could heal calmly, and Gwen curling into a ball moving close to Ben from the cold night as apparently Tetramand made more body heat than an average human. Max was glad that he had taken a picture because it made for a nice moment to tell their parents later, and also blackmail if he ever wanted to tease the kids, but for now it was just a humble moment.


End file.
